Our Lowestoft childcare teams visit Carlton Marshes thanks to YMCA Shine

Our Water Lane and St Margaret’s Road childcare settings have been enjoying working with the YMCA Shine team this term to allow us to provide our children with many experiences exploring the great outdoors. This was especially appreciated after a year where so many of us were forced to stay inside.

On the last week of term, the Shine team organised for some of our children to go to Carlton Marshes. This was a fantastic extension to the childcare’s weekly allotment trips that they have been attending. The children were excited to be visiting somewhere new, and had so much fun exploring the squelchy mud pit, looking for different bugs through the magnifying glasses, creating nature crowns and so much more. The memories from this trip will stay with these children for many years.

This was all made possible with the help of Shine (and their funding) and Carlton Marshes and the trip was part of the Nursery Allotment Programme. Initially, this was a Douglas Wood application which is money YMCA England & Wales released during covid for projects based on working on the land. However, the nursery age was too young to get through so YMCA E&W gave our childcare team one year’s money to run instead.